Drug driving Penalties

Drug driving is one of the concerns of the NSW government is drug driving as it affects safe and clear judgment required in driving. Taking drugs and driving under its influence put one’s life, his friends or family’s life at risk of being killed in a road accident.

There are six major drug driving offenses in NSW. These are:

• Having the presence of certain types of substances in oral fluid, blood or urine
• Driving under the influence of drugs
• Refusal to submit to a drug test
• Altering the amount of drug before oral fluid test
• Driver/ supervisor involved in a fatal accident fail to supply blood/urine sample
• Fail on demand to provide sample of blood/urine, or alter result of drug in blood before test

The maximum penalty for a first offender is imprisonment for 18 months, a fine of 30 penalty units and automatic licence disqualification for 3 years. The maximum penalty for a repeat offender following the recording of a criminal conviction is imprisonment for 2 years, a fine of 50 penalty units and automatic licence disqualification for 5 years.

NSW police are trained to identify drivers who are drug driving. Roadside drug testing is common now to reduce drug driving related accident and it was an effective measure together with random breath testing. Police officers can conduct a preliminary oral fluid test through the window of the vehicle of a suspected drug influenced driver. The driver will be directed to lick the test pad and after 5 minutes, the result is known.

Those who were found negative can drive away but those found positive for drugs such as speed, marijuana and ecstasy will be required to give a second oral fluid sample in the police support vehicle and the result is known after 20 minutes. And if they are tested positive, no charge can be made against them but will be prohibited from driving for 24 hours. The remaining second sample of oral fluid will be sent to laboratory for further confirmation and if the presence of any of the aforementioned drugs were found in the sample, the said driver will receive a court attendance notification after a few weeks of the roadside drug testing and charged with driving with presence of illicit drugs.

Our traffic lawyers will advise you of the potential penalties and provide you with no obligation all inclusive fixed fee quote.